In June 2011 Sarah Palin misspoke about Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride through Boston. While the correctness of her comments was discussed in the media, editors on Wikipedia’s Paul Revere entry engaged in a discussion over how the entry should address her comments. What made this situation different from other debates on Wikipedia was the attention it got from the press and the increased attention from around the world. How Wikipedia Editors make decisions about entry content is just as important as the content being added. Even Wikipedia’s creators and administrators understand this. They have created core policies to assist editors in making decisions. Of the core policies, three stand out to provide direction when problems occur. First, all entries must maintain a neutral point of view. This impacts the language used in the entry. Second, all sources must be verifiable. This impacts the type of source editors are expected to use to verify information in entries. Third, no original research ensures that information will appear in some form of publication. This presentation will focus on a case study of what process went into editing the Paul Revere entry after Palin's comments hit the media. Exploring the three core policies and the role they played in this process uncovered a Social Drama. By reviewing the discussion archive of the Paul Revere entry and interviewing participants the research was able to understand how social dramas could translate to a virtual community.

Length of presentation/talk (see Presentation Types for lengths of different presentation types)

Ideally, 30 minutes, but I could get it down to 15-20 min if necessary.

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